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Improve tooltip and other info communication in VM settings and Global settings #5939

Open marmarta opened 3 years ago

marmarta commented 3 years ago

Qubes OS version (if applicable) 4.1

Tooltips are useful, but can be difficult to discover; VM settings and Global Settings need a better way of explaining what options do (or better discoverability for tooltips). Case in point: @marmarek discovering today that Networking option in VM settings has a tooltip.

Ideas: use the dashed-underline + '?' pattern ? Have a "info box" that describes currently pointed-at option? (possible issues with accessibility)

marmarta commented 3 years ago

Possibly use pattern from: https://www.accessibility-developer-guide.com/examples/widgets/tooltips/

iamahuman commented 3 years ago

FYI, Xfce "Context Help" (found in the window decoration dropdown) does not seem to discover the tooltips either.

Immediately appearing tooltips are easiest to discover but annoying at the same time. Unsure about "accessibility" part, but I suppose most screen readers include discovery of hovering texts.

andrewdavidwong commented 3 years ago

Related issue: #2211

CC: @ninavizz, @mfc

ninavizz commented 3 years ago

Tooltips are critically important for accessibility, somehow I had not noticed that they were absent in Qubes! I'll post here tomorrow AM, @marmarta ... sorry I've been a little scarce, lately. Will be available much more, starting next week. :)

marmarta commented 3 years ago

@nina, we do have tooltips - but they are badly discoverable, as evidence by marmarek of all people not noticing some of them. I'm thinking of either/or shortening the time to show tooltip (currently 700ms) or adding an icon with a question mark next to things with a tooltip.

ninavizz commented 3 years ago

@marmarta How many things have tooltips, vs that do not? Also, when you say "tooltip," do you mean the standard accessibility enhancement that simply displays text to articulate the UI object's function, or do you mean helpful/guiding "This does blah" text?

If it's the latter, those should really be done as flyouts from an icon, and not as tooltips. Tooltips are intended to serve a very specific purpose for assistive tech.

marmarta commented 3 years ago

@marmarta How many things have tooltips, vs that do not? Also, when you say "tooltip," do you mean the standard accessibility enhancement that simply displays text to articulate the UI object's function, or do you mean helpful/guiding "This does blah" text?

I cannot honestly answer this question. There's no simple way of checking, and also I have no idea how to define "thing" here :) I'd say about 20% of widgets with data have (on some occasions at least) a tooltip, but it's very much an estimation. And by tooltip I mean the text like an info on a warning icon that it appeared because X, or explanations for more complex options.

If it's the latter, those should really be done as flyouts from an icon, and not as tooltips. Tooltips are intended to serve a very specific purpose for assistive tech.

What is the difference between a flyout and a tooltip here?